Our blog
Number Talks
By Eliana Hudson, UMKC communications intern “Block, stick, and dot! Block, stick, and dot! The block is hundreds, the stick is tens, the dot is one. Block, stick, and dot. Block, stick, and dot,” about twenty second graders chant while clapping their hands in tune with the beat. Standing at the front of the classroom is Ben, who [...]
Kindness Flowers
By Eliana Hudson, UMKC communications intern Every week at AFIA, we focus on kindness and compassion. Next week, we will increase this focus as October is National Bullying Prevention Month. An example of how we focus on kindness is visible in our first grade classroom. During the first few weeks of school, the first graders created a Kindness Tree. For each [...]
Meet Jack!
The Kindergarten class has excitedly welcomed a new friend into our classroom and we have named him Jack! Jack is a two-year-old Bearded Dragon that we adopted from a couple living in Olathe, KS. He is unique in the fact that he lost part of his tail when he was a baby and now has a stub tail; the children [...]
Art Show – Reflections: Creating Meaning Through Art
URBAN ELEMENTARY STUDENTS FEATURED AT CARTER ART CENTER - Press Release “Why am I adding dots? Because I want to. I wanted to add color. Yellow for the cloud, white goes in the sun and black goes in the sun, too,” said Antone, a fifth grader in Mrs. Moore’s class. “Because I want to” is an important component to [...]
School Garden
Last year, Ms. Davis and her class received an award from KC Healthy Kids and Kansas City Community Gardens to help improve our community. Our scholars decided to build garden beds for our school garden and plant fruits and vegetables. While building the beds and planting our crops, we talked about how our surroundings impact our health, how they as [...]
Garden Connections
By Eliana Hudson, UMKC communications intern Mrs. Davis and her third/fourth grade class have helped to transform the outside of our building to look more friendly and inviting. Last year, they decided to build garden beds and plant fruits, vegetables, and sunflowers with an award from KC Healthy Kids and Kansas City Community Gardens. Not only did our scholars plant crops [...]
The Colors of Us
“The Colors of Us” To help us learn about and celebrate the diversity of our kindergarten classroom, we did a mini-lesson studying the book, “The Colors of Us,” by Karen Katz. The story was based on a seven-year-old girl named Lena who takes a walk around her city with her mother and takes note of the many people in [...]
Up, Up and Away in Kindergarten!
It's been a busy first week and half here in the AFIA Kindergarten classroom as we have been working furiously at learning classroom routines and procedures, socialization, and school-wide expectations and norms, all while trying to maintain the natural composure of being 5 and 6 years old! Our first few days were very hands on as we were all adjusting to [...]
Art at the Nelson Atkins Museum
Simiyah, 2nd grade, creating her art piece. The second and third grade owl classroom took a field trip to the Nelson Atkins Museum and learned all about 2D and 3D art. Each scholar explored art work around the museum and toured the new sculptures and used them for inspiration in their own art pieces. Eryana, 2nd grade, [...]
Learning Through Play
At AFIA, we believe children learn best when they feel connected to the content. We believe children will engage more deeply in learning directed by them. We believe we must learn from our students and follow their interests. In our kindergarten room for example, you will see many examples of play-based learning. Recently I watched as a student crawled under a [...]